Search

For many years, technology has been applied to improve the quality of language learning and teaching. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the integration of technology in different language learning contexts. The sudden shift to online teaching faced educators with an array of challenges they had not experienced before. In particular, the teachers encountered many barriers with the online assessment of the students. To shed more light on what passed, following a qualitative mode of inquiry, the present study set out to find out how a group of 20 Iranian English language teachers at Persian Gulf University faced with the online assessment challenges posed by COVID-19. For this aim, the researchers conducted in-depth semi-structured retrospective interviews with the teachers at different times throughout the course. In addition, the teachers were asked to provide a narrative account of how they responded to the crisis. The analysis of the findings showed that after the shift to online assessment, the teachers initially faced with serious pedagogical, technical, administrative, and affective barriers, but as the course proceeded, they could adjust their practice with the new situation. However, the teachers recounted problems that still remained and negatively affected their practice. Overall, the study discusses that to improve the online assessment in the post-COVID-19 era several technological, pedagogical, and administrative measures should be taken into account. These would further improve the integration of the technology in the pedagogical context in the long run.

Postmodern poetry revisits the traditions and subjects myth and history to drastic experimentations. The present paper reacts to Ashbery's postmodern rendition of the myth of Orpheus in his poem ‘Syringa’ (Ashbery, 1985). He dismantles and opposes the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and disrupts its totalitarian voice. The main concerns of the paper are to investigate what linguistic potentials Ashbery deploys in his experimentation, how these potentials help him appropriate and then subvert the mythical subtext, and what the consequences of this subversion could be. He disturbs the myth of Orpheus by drawing on the potentials of constructed oppositions. These potentials help Ashbery deconstruct the mythical narrative and adapt it to his postmodern tastes. The theoretical framework comprises Leslie Jeffries's notion of constructed opposition. The methodology is analytic and interpretive; it conducts a close reading of the poem which situates the poem at the intersecting nodes of myth, poetry, and language. The poem is argued to have relied heavily on the oppositions that Ashbery sets up between his text and its mythical subtext. The paper concludes negation and shifts of verb-tenses are the main structural triggers of opposition along with semantic triggers. A poesia pós-moderna revisita as tradições e sujeita o mito e a história a experimentações drásticas. O presente artigo reage à versão pós-moderna de Ashbery do mito de Orfeu em seu poema ‘Syringa’ (Ashbery, 1985). Ele desmonta e se opõe ao mito de Orfeu e Eurídice e perturba sua voz totalitária. As principais preocupações do artigo são investigar quais potenciais linguísticos Ashbery utiliza em sua experimentação, como esses potenciais o ajudam a se apropriar e subverter o subtexto mítico e quais poderiam ser as consequências dessa subversão. Ele perturba o mito de Orfeu recorrendo aos potenciais das oposições construídas. Esses potenciais ajudam Ashbery a desconstruir a narrativa mítica e adaptá-la aos seus gostos pós-modernos. O quadro teórico compreende a noção de Leslie Jeffries de oposição construída. A metodologia é analítica e interpretativa; ela realiza uma leitura atenta do poema, que o situa nos nós de intersecção do mito, da poesia e da linguagem. Argumenta-se que o poema se baseou fortemente nas oposições que Ashbery estabelece entre seu texto e seu subtexto mítico. O artigo conclui que a negação e as mudanças de tempos verbais são os principais gatilhos estruturais de oposição, juntamente com os gatilhos semânticos.